Baltimore police investigating two overnight shootings

Justin George, The Baltimore Sun

Police are investigating two overnight shootings in East Baltimore that injured two men.

The first was reported just after midnight, when officers found a man shot in the chest at Greenmount Avenue and Preston Street in the Johnston Square neighborhood. He was transported to an area hospital and police have no suspects.

At 1:44 a.m., police heard between five and 10 gunshots south of the 2500 block of East Monument Street, and they saw a man yelling "I've been shot," Baltimore police spokeswoman Det. Angela Carter-Watson said.

The victim told police that he had been relieving himself in the rear alley of the 600 block of North Luzerne Avenue when he was shot in the right foot. The man was driven to an area hospital. Eastern District detectives are investigating the shooting.

It was the McElderry Park neighborhood's second shooting in five days.

Early Friday, four blocks from Tuesday's shooting, witnesses and police say a man was fatally shot in the head while riding his bicycle at North Belnord Avenue and Jefferson Street. Another man was injured.

A man who saw the shooting but declined to give his name out of fear said he observed multiple men wearing masks over their faces walking south on Belnord toward Jefferson Street and firing at the victim on a bike.

The neighborhood is home to Safe Streets East, a government-funded program where reformed gang members and felons try and mediate conflict without police intervention. Before Friday's shooting, Safe Streets officials said the neighborhood had gone 71 days without a shooting.

On Monday, Safe Streets volunteers and "violence interrupters" held a rally at the site of Friday's shooting using megaphones and signs and handing out T-shirts calling for peace and accountability.